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pollinating greenhouse tomatoes #248725

Asked June 01, 2015, 11:10 AM EDT

How to pollinate my greenhouse tomatoes which are starting to flower? Thanks, Duane Clark, Florence, Or.

Lane County Oregon

Expert Response

Here's a link to a great YouTube video on pollinating your tomato plants using a small electric toothbrush to simulate what a bumblebee would do in the outside world.:

  https://youtu.be/2Fwff3oeaxc

Tomatoes are self-pollinating. Wind or bees carry pollen from the anthers, the male parts of the flower, to the stigma, one of the female parts of the same flower. From the stigma, the genetic material in the pollen travels to the ovary and fertilizes it. The ovary then grows to become tomato fruit. Without fertilization, tomatoes don't produce fruit.


With Hand Pollination You must pollinate during the short time between blooming and bud drop, and you must pollinate each flower cluster individually.

Pollination Sprays:

An alternative to hand pollination is pollinating spray, sometimes called blossom set spray. Pollination sprays contain cytokinins, which are hormones that trigger the growth of the tomato ovary. In commercial greenhouses, workers spray the pollination spray on newly opened tomato blossoms until the spray runs off. Doing so does not pollinate the tomato despite the fact that these sprays are typically called pollination spray. Saturating the ovary of the tomato with cytokinins causes it to grow into a tomato without pollination. Fruit from these artificially stimulated tomatoes tends to be larger and more abundant than naturally pollinated tomatoes.

Bumblebees

You can also use a pollination method that is less labor-intensive than either hand pollination or spraying plants with pollinating spray -- using bumblebees. Various companies supply bees. Once installed in a hive inside the greenhouse, the bees fly from plant to plant, looking for nectar and pollen to eat. They land upside down on the flower and bite into the staminal tube. Their wing muscles vibrate as they hang from the blossom. This vibration causes enough movement to shake the pollen onto the stigma and pollinate the tomato.

Good luck!











An Ask Extension Expert Replied June 02, 2015, 12:24 PM EDT
Maggie,

Thanks for your very interesting and useful response.

Duane Clark
The Question Asker Replied June 02, 2015, 1:21 PM EDT
You are quite welcome!  The electric toothbrush is pretty slick!  Have fun!

Maggie
An Ask Extension Expert Replied June 02, 2015, 3:19 PM EDT

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